The Mourning Run How running helps grief and loss
BY ADRIAN MONTI An experienced runner and a longestablished contributor to the leading sports title Runner’s World as well as Men’s Running and Women’s Running from Brighton, England. ADRIANMONTI
ADRIAN MONTI
48 I Running Issue I IMPACT MAGAZINE
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t is a sight which many of us will be familiar with at races, be it mass participation marathons or even at a summer fun run. It’s that runner with a loved one’s name and image on their running top, usually accompanied by poignant words about a life which often ended far too early. In the starkest way possible, it tells onlookers the reason why that person is lining up to run their race. Maybe in the past that runner has been you. In many ways, it’s a heartening sight. It shows that someone who has suffered a devastating loss can now mark or even celebrate that lost life in a positive way, be it by running, fundraising, increasing awareness of a cause or a combination
of all three. It also shows they are moving forward along this well-trodden road and are dealing with their loss. Inevitably, we all have to face the death of someone important to us, with grief being a very natural response. According to Statistics Canada, in 2019 there were 285,270 deaths in the country. Between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, there were 307,132, a rise of over 21,000 due in part to the pandemic (in Canada the total Covid-related deaths as of April 1, 2022, was over 37,900). This means more of us than ever will have experienced a recent bereavement. How we deal with loss is very personal and of course there’s no right or wrong way. But during the late 1960s, Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross put
